In Alger Hiss case, William L. Marbury was a lawyer's lawyer

I was amazed to read in Frederick N. Rasmussen's "Alger Hiss' trial still stirs readers" (June 26) the opinion expressed by Timmerman Daughtery that Hiss made a major blunder in hiring William L. Marbury as his counsel.

As Ms. Daughtery put it, "if he'd gotten a 'real' lawyer, not a society boy in the beginning, the story would be a different one."

At the time, Mr. Marbury was approaching 50 years of age with 20 years experience as a trial lawyer. He had just completed service as chief counsel of the War Department in charge of procurement for the entire duration of World War II, and was the senior partner of one of Baltimore's most prominent law firms.

He would later become the president of the Maryland State Bar Association and the senior member of the Harvard Corporation, and he was widely recognized as one of the leading lawyers in the state and nation.

That sounds like a "real" lawyer to me.

Decatur H. Miller

The writer is a former chairman of the Baltimore law firm Piper & Marbury.